FROM THIS EPISODE

State budget cuts have prompted UCLA's Anderson School MBA program to reject public money in favor of private donations and higher tuition. Supporters call it a way to save needier programs that cannot be self-sufficient. Opponents say it's part of a trend away from public funding of higher education. Also, debris from last year's Japanese tsunami is washing up in Canada, Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. On Friday, monitors began work at beaches here in Southern California. What have they found so far? How do they know if it's really the result of that tragic disaster? On our rebroadcast of today's To the Point, public unions and Democrats: a rift between friends?

The legal deadline for California's next state budget is Friday of this week, and it's unlikely the legislature will delay passage as it did for so many years. The voters have decreed that Assembly and Senate members won't get paid until they send a spending plan to Governor Brown. So the work is being done — not in public, but behind closed doors — and by Democrats alone. Anthony York reports from Sacramento for the LA Times.

UCLA's Anderson School of Management offers a full-time MBA program to 720 students each year. By a vote of 53 to 46, the Legislative Assembly of the campus's full faculty has agreed that the program can switch from public funding to relying on donations and increased tuition. Is the Anderson School part of a trend? Are other programs in other public institutions looking to go private?

Last week, we heard about the massive Japanese dock that washed up in Oregon, debris from the devastating Japanese tsunami of more than a year ago. Last Friday, Heal the Bay began monitoring beaches in Southern California—at the request of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Sarah Sikich is Heal the Bay's coastal resources director.

Last week's national election story was the failed recall of Republican Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin, a state where Republicans and Democrats are sharply divided. There's another division — within the Democratic Party. Consider California, one of the bluest states in the nation. In the Republican stronghold San Diego, 67 percent of voters approved limitations on the pensions of public workers, but in San Jose, the margin was 70 percent -- for reductions in pensions and benefits for public employees, including police and firefighters. We hear more about what happened in California and whether it's likely to spread.